Countercultured

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Forgive the gratuitous abuse of the webcam

I just want you to know that I love my new haircut. My friend Juliann did it. She is quite skilled.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

All I want for Christmas is...

Please put me in this if you can.

debbie tunic by Ashley Chupp featuring Forever21

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Finals week...

Ugh. Finals week. My exams start tomorrow night. So, naturally, I've been studying with a lot of late nights. And I'm kind of a wreck. But that's no excuse for looking like a total slob! Here are some tips I've picked up for looking presentable in the midst of the high stress and sleep deprivation.

Showering at night

This may be a no-brainer for some, but I always take my showers in the morning. The main reason I don't take showers at night is that when I'm sleepy, I don't feel like doing my hair. My roommates can go to bed with wet hair, wake up the next morning and look fine. I can't pull that trick. So last night, I set my hair in two braids after my shower and before I went to sleep. In the morning, I took them out and had relatively tame waves instead of looking like an electrocuted poodle. This allows me to sleep until the last minute and still look okay.

Makeup

If I give up makeup altogether, it will be quite obvious that I'm sleepless and generally out of it. However, I just used enough concealer to cover blemishes and dark eye-circles and just enough mascara to make me look awake. I almost never leave my room without eyeliner, so this is different for me. However, I am now free to rub my eyes without worrying about looking like Courtney Love.

Leggings!

I love leggings. I picked this tip up from College Fashion. Leggings are comfy to sleep in and all you have to do the next morning is throw on an oversized tee or cardigan and run with it. Now you're comfortable, but you're doing it with more flair than sweatpants.

Shoes

Comfort and ease is what you're going for here. You want shoes you can slip on and walk out the door in. It gets really cold here in Northwest PA, so I'll be sticking to my moccasins, my suede boots and my snow boots. Every girl needs at least one pair of comfy, stylish go-to shoes for situations like this. I have a few recommendations!

Moccasins

Fashion boots

Warm boots

I made my roomie take a picture of me today. I know I look rough, but trust me- it could be much worse.

I did the leggings. Yes, I did sleep in them last night. I pulled on my Charlotte Russe suede boots. Band T shirts are an important staple of my wardrobe. I wore my longest, roomiest one since it is comfortable and adds personal flair to my ensemble. And finally, I wore my extra large, obnoxiously colored grandpa cardigan. This is one of my favorite wardrobe pieces ever. It's sooo comfortable and really fun and versatile too! Did I mention I bought it at a thrift store for 4 dollars?

So, there you go. This is my game plan for facing finals week. I will inevitably look like a mess, so I might as well do it with style.

Currently listening to: "Tell Her Tonight" Franz Ferdinand

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Oh! The Irony

Pulling off ironic fashion is far from easy. And it's becoming a bigger and bigger thing. There are darn hipsters crawling all over the place! I'm not gonna lie. I do like some irony in my wardrobe. It's a lot of fun. For example, here's one of my favorite shirts of all time!

That's a picture of Kanye and it says "Yo I'm really happy for you and I'ma let you finish, but I have one of the best shirts of all time"

The thing is, when you try to do irony, you run the risk of looking like you know nothing about fashion or looking like a flamboyant hipster.

Yesterday, my hall had "Crazy Christmas Sweater Day" and this is pretty much the approach I took. (I should have taken a picture, but this is almost exactly the look I rocked.)

I wanted to make the sweater the main focus so it would be obvious it was intentional. I kept the rest very basic, but still trendy. Most of all, remember to rock it with confidence! In general, when doing irony, keep it classy, polished, smart and coordinated. You want to look like this:

Understated Irony by Ashley Chupp featuring Old Navy

and NOT like this:

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

What to be expecting...

Friday is our hall's "Crazy Christmas Sweater Day" so expect a post on ironic fashion and how to pull it off without looking tacky or like a hipster.

I'd like to start putting up some posts on music. I've been wanting to write about some bands, so expect that to start up soon.

There are some girls I've met here with awesome fashion sense, so I may start posting "closet-tours" with some of my fellow fashion-obsessed students.

I love counterculture and subculture movements. I spend hours researching them. I'd love to enlighten any readers on some past and present movements, clearing up misconceptions and shedding light on the reasoning behind them.

Also, I'm not sure if anyone reads my posts, but I'm just gonna keep on truckin' and hope something happens.

Currently listening to: "The Reeling" Passion Pit

Monday, December 7, 2009

I don't think you understand...

I want you out of my life. And I don't think you're taking the hints. I don't want to crush you, but I'm an inch away from blowing up. You're annoying and ignorant. I've tried to shut you out so many times before. You're toxic. You make me so angry, I lash out and make things worse. Somehow, you think that you can just expect me to forgive and/or forget every stupid thing you've done when you just keep cranking them out. I've never liked you. I've never liked your family. And I think I've made that clear in the past. And yet you keep trying to be my "friend." I try to never hate. But you make it so hard. If you're reading this, you know who you are. Don't message me. Don't text me. (By the way, HOW did you get my number?!) Don't try to talk about it. You will never change my mind. I've conceded to you before because I felt bad hurting your feelings. No more. You have other friends. You mean nothing to me. Leave. Me. Alone. Consider this your formal invitation to GTFO.

Currently listening to: "I am Your Skin" The Bravery

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Joanna Gikas

Joanna is the frontwoman for relatively obscure band Io Echo. Take a moment to check them out. It's okay. I'll wait for you. Done? Awesome, right? I knew you'd agree. I wish I knew how exactly to describe their music. I've heard it called goth or pop-punk, but I don't think either of those quite work. Think Interpol meets Yeah Yeah Yeahs meets New Young Pony Club. That's the best I can do. It's good stuff, though. Just trust me on this one.

I think that as Joanna and Io Echo become more famous, Joanna will emerge as a fashion icon. Already, I really dig what she's been putting out there. There are elements of femininity to what she wears. I've seen a lot of simple dresses. But she doesn't look super "girly" in that she tends to use other elements such as a jacket or even her hair to give some edge to what she wears. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but in almost every picture I could find of Joanna she was wearing black and white. I love that she rocks a signature color scheme already, but I'm also hoping to see some different stuff from her soon.

This is a pretty good example, I think.

Joanna rocks the vintage look and makes it a little more edgy and "tough" for lack of a better word. I love that. I'm not a huge fan of the girly, vintage thing, but I'm definitely a fan of this twist on it. Sometimes, I think vintage comes across as "cute", but I wouldn't really call Joanna's style "cute." So, congratulations Joanna on doing vintage without looking overly feminine or trite.

I've drawn on some of the elements I've seen from Joanna to create some looks that I know I would love to rock and I'm sure you could pull off, too.